🇪🇸 Saul Niguez

[DDA 9,941]

The thing that worried me was his desire to run back once he lost the ball. Bloke looked uninterested, which is concerning considering it was his debut for fuck sake. 

People have been saying, you don't get much time in the Prem ect..which in most cases can be true but its a fallacy to say you have no time at all. Sometimes see Jorginho strolling around with all the time in the World due to his positioning and reading of the game. Saul was making hurrendous passes with zero pressure on him. 

Absolutely no excuse for some of what we saw out there from a 'so called' top professional footballer. 

Edited September 12, 2021 by DDA

[Blues Forever 1,232]

Just shocking debut, probably among the worst i have seen in recent time.

[Vybz Kartel 1,613]

I think what made it worse for him is he is a left footed player and our players were playing balls to his wrong side. Give him a few more weeks and he will look good again. 

[Vesper 30,185]

3 points

1. @Vybz Kartel is spot on about the left footedness and us playing balls to his wrong side.

2. The lad needs to hit the weight room with a strength coach. The EPL is a bully-boy league and Saul is not a regista type like Jorgi, who can dance around and avoid getting pushed off the ball. He is going to be more direct.

3. Tuchel is master technician and I have confidence he will sort him. Saul was the top tackler (number of tackles) in all of La Liga cumulatively from 2015 until he left, and that was counting his fucked up season last year, and far too many games at LB (which helped to fuck him up last season).

[robsblubot 3,595]

On 11/09/2021 at 20:47, DDA said:

The thing that worried me was his desire to run back once he lost the ball. Bloke looked uninterested, which is concerning considering it was his debut for fuck sake. 

People have been saying, you don't get much time in the Prem ect..which in most cases can be true but its a fallacy to say you have no time at all. Sometimes see Jorginho strolling around with all the time in the World due to his positioning and reading of the game. Saul was making hurrendous passes with zero pressure on him. 

Absolutely no excuse for some of what we saw out there from a 'so called' top professional footballer. 

Can't disagree that it was a worrying debut, but here's a very strong silver lining:

Bakayoko had a great debut!  

[Vesper 30,185]

 

[Magic Lamps 11,692]

Can't believe how clueless he is. I was so pushing for this move. Deeply disappointed. On paper he has got everything. But some Spanish players just become bambi on ice when you take them out of a spanish team. At least he did not make any cataclysmic mistakes this time, just was anonymous. Even RLC looked better. Defensively just as shit but at least RLC is able to exert his trademark dynamic bursts through midfield again whilst saul seems to have forgotten everything he used to be good at.

[Vesper 30,185]

20 minutes ago, Magic Lamps said:

Can't believe how clueless he is. I was so pushing for this move. Deeply disappointed. On paper he has got everything. But some Spanish players just become bambi on ice when you take them out of a spanish team. At least he did not make any cataclysmic mistakes this time, just was anonymous. Even RLC looked better. Defensively just as shit but at least RLC is able to exert his trademark dynamic bursts through midfield again whilst saul seems to have forgotten everything he used to be good at.

[Artandur 939]

7 hours ago, Vesper said:

 

We can't offload him in Jan, can we?

[Vesper 30,185]

1 hour ago, Artandur said:

We can't offload him in Jan, can we?

I suppose we could terminate the loan (we would pay a penalty I am sure), or loan him to another side for 6 months.

I am shocked at how shit he has been. Makes no sense. He was, for 4 or 5 years, a WC beast of a CMF until last season, right when he entered his ultra-prime years. I cannot think, off the top of my head, another MF atm who was so good and now has just collapsed in his mid 20's, and not injury-related.

[manpe 10,861]

25 minutes ago, Vesper said:

I suppose we could terminate the loan (we would pay a penalty I am sure), or loan him to another side for 6 months.

I am shocked at how shit he has been. Makes no sense. He was, for 4 or 5 years, a WC beast of a CMF until last season, right when he entered his ultra-prime years. I cannot think, off the top of my head, another MF atm who was so good and now has just collapsed in his mid 20's, and not injury-related.

A club can loan out a loanee?

Edited September 23, 2021 by manpe

[Tomo 21,751]

29 minutes ago, Vesper said:

I suppose we could terminate the loan (we would pay a penalty I am sure), or loan him to another side for 6 months.

I am shocked at how shit he has been. Makes no sense. He was, for 4 or 5 years, a WC beast of a CMF until last season, right when he entered his ultra-prime years. I cannot think, off the top of my head, another MF atm who was so good and now has just collapsed in his mid 20's, and not injury-related.

I was suspicious when he signed. He knew he had a fight on to even be first substitute and was still happy to come.

[Vegetable 830]

So unpredictable people hyping move of fallen player, trying to rebuild himself to the moon and calling for sending him back when he surprisingly didn't turn out to be a superstar from the very first minute on pitch. Oh, internet.

[ulvhedin 526]

8 hours ago, Magic Lamps said:

On paper he has got everything. But some Spanish players just become bambi on ice when you take them out of a spanish team. 

Problem with him is that he hasn't became bambi on ice when you took him out of s spanish team - accroding to even Atletico fans, he was very poor for 2 seasons already.

[Warning_Hazard 156]

Was better last night than his debut.

Like chilly, Needs game time.

[Atomiswave 6,117]

He needs time, he was never gonna just roll in to Chels and EPL and storm it. He was better last night but obviously needs time to settle.

[ZAPHOD2319 4,818]

I thought he was better at the start of the game. One or two touches and pass. As the half went on he started dribbling more and passes got more risky. I really love the player he was and hope that he can get some of that back. Thankfully it is a loan.

[Jype 6,398]

5 hours ago, ulvhedin said:

Problem with him is that he hasn't became bambi on ice when you took him out of s spanish team - accroding to even Atletico fans, he was very poor for 2 seasons already.

As far as I know he was only 'poor' when judged by the sky high standards he had previously set for himself, but even then I would think he was still a useful player because he kept starting most games. No way he was that bad for two years and still kept his place as a regular starter in a team that just won the league title in Spain last season and has one of the best squads in the country.

Still early days but not looking promising at all, though it has to be said that Kovacic had an underwhelming first season as well and once he got going he became much better. If it weren't for the transfer ban I doubt the Kovacic deal would have even been made permanent but at the time there weren't any other options. Saul doesn't have the luxury of getting a full season to settle in because if he keeps underperforming it's easy to just send him packing. Having so many question marks over recovering his form is exactly why it only made sense to do the signing as a loan deal. 

Edited September 23, 2021 by Jype

[chelsea_4_eva 1,182]

Lets see hoe he does halfway through the season

[DH1988 1,348]

Good point earlier regarding Kova, exactly what I was going to post, though I understand we didn't see the same level of debut etc it's a similar enough situation. Saul is good friends with Kepa and should take stock from that situation, we actually now rely on Kepa, not to the amount we thought when paying the money we did, but ultimately he is a valuable member of the squad.

It's down to Saul to improve and as above let's see how things are going in Jan/Feb, not forgetting we do have others to take the fourth spot as well.